GOLD Coast coach Damien Hardwick says the Suns’ current nine-match slide could prove to be “the most important in our club’s history”.
Touted as premiership contenders after a flying start to the season, the Suns are now almost certain to miss finals following their 13-point loss to Carlton on Saturday.
The defeat leaves Gold Coast languishing in 14th spot, two wins outside the wildcard places, but Hardwick remains focused on the lessons his side can take from a season that has fallen well short of expectations.
“These nine games might be the most important in our club’s history,” Hardwick said post-match.
“People will sit there and go, ‘What are you talking about?’ Well. I’ve been in situations before where situations like this have occurred and you get the greatest growth from your darkest times.
“We’re learning things along the way. At the end of the day, success isn’t linear, but it might be the thing that actually sparks us as something pretty special.”
The Suns laid just 34 tackles, 18 less than the Blues, however Hardwick refused to question his side’s effort and character.
“One thing I will say, I’ve been around footy a long time. The spirit and the drive of this group is as strong as ever,” the three-time premiership coach said.
“Noah (Anderson) and his crew have done an incredible job with that.
“The easy thing for any side to be in our situation of losing nine games in a row, to drop their bundle, they don’t do that.
“It’s a credit to Noah and ‘Rowlley’ (Matt Rowell) and those types of players that are sitting there still trying their absolute hardest to get us to a win.
“For whatever reason we’re not playing as well as we’d like, we’re not quite where we need to be … but we’re not as bad as what the record would suggest.
“So what we’ve got to do is keep turning up, keep getting to work, keep believing in what we’re doing, and more importantly, keep pushing that barrel up the hill.”
Carlton’s round 20 win takes interim coach Josh Fraser’s record to 8-2 since he took the reins from Michael Voss earlier in the season.
With finals approaching, Fraser admits he has some decisions to make as Carlton enters the final month of the home and away season.
“We’re clearly getting closer to the end of the season than what we were nine, 10 weeks ago,” Fraser said post-match.
“At some point in time, I will have to consider where I’m at as a coach and I think every coach would go through that process.
“This time of year, you sort of start to think about where your gaps are and what you need to keep growing.
“And I’m no different. So when the time’s right, I’ll have a deeper think about what that looks like.”
With a place in the wildcard round well and truly a possibility for the Blues, Fraser said his side are not getting ahead of themselves.
“I think there’s an awareness of it in the background. For me, it’s not so much around that as opposed to what we’re building through the week and that is where we’re at,” Fraser said.
“I think I’d be doing a disservice to the club in terms of trying to take it forward if we started to take our eyes off what’s given us a chance to be in this position.
“So our training standards are improving. Our want individually and collectively to grow our game and get better is improving.
“We are not a finished product. We’ve got so much work in front of us. But the next four weeks represents a chance to keep building on that”
Fraser confirmed that milestone man Nic Newman had injured his hamstring in his 150th game.
“Naturally you’d be disappointed. Milestone game, hamstring injury early – it’s part of footy unfortunately,” Fraser said.
“He’s a great character, he’s got great support. We’ll get more information on that early in the week and see where that sits.
